The 100 word dash flash!

In the Shadows

Déjà vu all over again.

Why Michelle dragged me here. Why we have front row seats. Why I wish I were anywhere else.

The last song from the opening band dissolves into applause. And then Tom’s there. And Kim’s there. A spotlight dances over them and around me the crowd erupts, and everyone stands as the guitar riff fills the arena. A riff I know.

The song is a shadow creeping around me. Kim’s husky voice disquiets as she croons lyrics about fate and destiny and karma that I feel they’ve never understood because I wrote those words one late night when the world felt disjointed and hope abandoned and reality collapsed like puzzle pieces raining from the sky. If Michelle’s fingers weren’t clamped around my wrist like a vise, I would have walked out, in the shadows. But I remain, listen, never considering what if because that question only begs a larger one. Why now?

end

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